The Custom House Murders (Captain Lacey Mysteries #15) - Ashley Gardner Page 0,50

right, and the man was hiding something, but I sat in embarrassment. I had grown too enamored of my own opinion, I supposed. “Forgive me. Perhaps my wife’s fondness for opera has confounded my thinking. You must admit that your behavior has been odd.”

Eden waved a hand in exasperation. “I am trying to settle myself in England once more, a country I have not spent much time in for many years. Like you, I followed the drum across the world, and then thought the Antilles would make my fortune. Now I need to put myself somewhere, doing something. There is not much for a former soldier who knows little about finance or farming, but when opportunities present themselves, I must pursue them.”

“I see.” I sipped coffee to hide my confusion. I’d been so certain. Eden was usually a straightforward person to the point of vexation, and his evasiveness troubled me.

But his explanation was logical. If he had wanted to rescue a lady, he would have done so in the most candid way possible, to make certain no harm came to her. Helping her run away and stowing her on the ship was romantic, and Eden, as I’d noted, was not. He did enjoy the company of women, but never grew starry-eyed about them.

“I do beg your pardon,” I said, my words stiff. “To avoid my flights of fancy, perhaps you ought to simply tell me what you’ve been doing.”

Now his flush returned. “I will. In time. You must trust me that nothing I have done has resulted in the death of Warrilow. I am as confounded about it as you are. Yes, I shouted at him—he was a pompous bully—and yes, I visited him to shout at him again, but as Mrs. Beadle told you, he was abed. I never saw him, never clouted him with a wash basin, did not kill him. I give you my word, as a gentleman and an officer of your regiment.”

“I believe you.” Eden was not a man who’d promise his word without all honesty behind it. “I will not mention it again.”

“I am grateful to hear it.” Eden slurped down more coffee. “Now, we should turn our attentions to who did murder Warrilow to, as I said, give Sergeant Pomeroy another man to chase.”

“Very well.” I moved aside the books on chess Barnstable had helped me find this afternoon and laid the notes I’d made on the problem in front of me. “When we searched Warrilow’s rooms, we found an army carbine. Did he have such a weapon with him on the ship? I imagine him as the sort who’d show it off at the supper table.”

“I agree he would be that sort, but he never did.” Eden set down his cup, calming. “I never saw a carbine in Warrilow’s possession. Perhaps he acquired it after he landed home to use for protection. The areas around the wharves can be dangerous.”

“Then why dismantle it and hide it beneath the floorboards?” I opened my hands. “When one confronts an intruder, you do not say, Excuse me a moment, extract a stripped weapon, put it together, load it, prime it, point it at the intruder, and finally announce you are ready to do battle.”

Eden chuckled. “I see what you mean.”

“Thompson carried the gun away with him, but he might let me have another look at it, as both of us know much about cavalry weapons. I wonder where Warrilow found it.”

“There is surplus lying about now that the Frenchies are behaving themselves and we gave up trying to subdue the Americans. He might have bought it secondhand somewhere.”

“It was a fairly new model, not leftover from Waterloo.” I mused and made a note. “Brewster discovered that the clerk, Laybourne, let rooms in a house very near Wellclose Square. What can you tell me about him?”

“Not much more than I have already. Laybourne kept to himself most of the time. He was a sickly chap—he had to leave the islands and their tropical diseases behind. He felt very sorry for himself and went on about his delicate health and his lack of fortune a fair bit.”

“Sounds an excellent traveling companion.”

“We were all ready to see the back of him. The missionaries assured Laybourne that all his suffering was the will of the Lord. They claimed the same for every cloud that floated by, every bird that rode our wake, every fish that leapt from the water. Each of those incidents reminded them of an event in